Pakistan A powerful car bomb ripped through a prayer gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in central Pakistan, killing 40 people and wounding more than 100 as the country grappled with a new upsurge of sectarian violence. US With an eye to the next debate just one day away, US President George W. Bush attacked critics of his Iraq policy despite an official report that Saddam Hussein had no chemical, biological or nuclear arms. Britain The British government renewed its defense of its decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq, despite a US report which says former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was confident that Turkey could cope with the stringent conditions imposed by an EU report on his country's membership bid in the bloc, as the media celebrated a "historic" turning point in the nation's 40-year dream. France A lorry carrying a shipment of plutonium from US weapons arsenals was being escorted through France en route for a reprocessing plant in the southwestern town of Cadarache. France The accusation made in an official US report that French businessmen and politicians received bribes from Saddam Hussein in order to influence government policy in Iraq are "unverified," the French foreign ministry said. Russia President Vladimir Putin submitted the Kyoto treaty on global warming for approval to the Russian parliament, the Kremlin said. EU The European Union is to tighten sanctions against Myanmar after seeing no "positive development" on a list of demands on human rights and democracy, the EU Dutch presidency said. Britain British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he wanted the swift resolution of conflicts in Africa to become the "top priority" for the European Union's new rapid reaction force, promising an audience in Ethiopia that troops could be sent to crisis areas within 10 days. Britain British tug boats sailed to join a major rescue operation for a Canadian submarine that has been drifting for days without power in high seas near Ireland after a fatal fire. Cambodia Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk has abdicated while in self-imposed exile in Beijing, plunging the country into a new political crisis, his son, the national assembly president, said. Sweden Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won the 2004 Nobel Literature Prize, the Swedish Academy announced. Vatican Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of an Austrian bishop involved in a paedophile scandal and named his successor.